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Jacket
Jacket is a character in Hotline Miami. Hotline Miami SPOILER WARNING: plot details below "Jacket" is the protagonist in Hotline Miami and the playable character for most of the game. His name started out as a nickname by players, but then Dennis started calling him Jacket in various interviews. Over the course of the game, the protagonist dons various animal masks, leading to other fan nicknames, and performs a number of brutal assassinations in response to cryptic messages left on his answering machine. After another masked assassin attempts to murder the protagonist in his own apartment, he spends his last chapters pursuing those he feels are responsible. Most of the protagonist's chapters follow a similar structure. The player begins in his apartment and checks his answering machine to receive details about the mission. The player character then drives to the location and the player navigates the building while killing enemies and achieving any extra objectives. Early chapters end with the protagonist visiting a store or bar where his conversations with the employees serve to provide context and exposition for the storyline. Details about the protagonist are sparse, leaving the player to infer details based on observing changes from chapter to chapter. This sparse detail, including no given name, is partly why some fans use the name "Jacket". At the start of the game, the protagonist's apartment is filthy. He acquires a roommate after the chapter Decadence, when he brings a drug-addled hooker home with him. Over time, they form a domestic bond and his apartment becomes more tidy. Ultimately their separate beds are pushed together and other characters refer to her as the protagonist's girlfriend, implying that they have become romantically involved. In contrast to his apartment becoming more orderly, the protagonist's perceptions of reality begin to degrade. He revisits a decrepit room where three masked figures pose questions about the nature of his actions while never providing answers. His apartment and the locations around town become populated with gory figures resembling the mobsters he's murdered. And the various friendly shopkeepers are all replaced by a hostile man, who is later revealed to be the playable character's would-be assassin. The combination of an unstable reality, and the protagonist eventually waking from a coma, suggests that much of the game has taken place in a dream where said protagonist recalls the actions that lead up to being hospitalized. After escaping the hospital, the playable character tracks down the assassin (who is in police custody) that was sent to kill him. He then sets his sights on the mob boss he believes responsible for all the phone calls that set the story in motion. He's noticeably inspired by The Driver from the film Drive (Which is already a big inspiration for the game itself) as they both have blonde hair, similar hairstyles, and a unique accessory/piece of clothing that they are recognized for (In this case Jacket has his Varsity jacket, and The Driver; his Scorpion jacket). Hotline Miami 2 Following the events of Jacket's massacre, a slasher film is inspired by the story, but instead features an actor named Martin Brown as a cold-blooded serial killer called the "Pig Butcher". The levels are set up as scenes for the film Midnight Animal, in which the Pig Butcher "kills his victims" while under the control of the Rooster persona named Richard, that also haunted Jacket in his hallucinations. Jacket is also the idol of a group of new protagonists called The Fans, who think he was a hero for ridding Miami of crime. The Fans worship and imitate him by using his "masked vigilante" act to kill random thugs all across Miami. According to the leaked gameplay footage, the real Jacket has been found by the police and is now facing trial in court for his massacres. The Protagonist's Personality Not much is known about the protagonist's personality, but from the looks of his sparse apartment there are hints about what type of person he is. *He is into video games, as there is a Nintendo Entertainment System in his bedroom. *He follows the news, and cuts out and saves any article related to his murder spree. *He eats a lot of takeout pizza and junk food, suggesting a lack of home cooking skills. *He likes to wear printed t-shirts. *He is a cocaine user, as he has some on the table at his apartment. *He drives what appears to be a DMC DeLorean, indicating a taste for higher-end sports cars. *He owns a varsity jacket, leading some players to call him "Jacket" (his real name is unknown). *He might have contacts with close relatives or friends, as there is a bouquet of flowers next to his hospital bed, suggesting that someone visited him during his coma. *He's assumed to be ambidextrous, as evident by how he holds certain weapons and often switches between being left handed and right handed. *He doesn't have a toilet in his apartment. According to Dennis Wedin in IGN Live, they forgot to put it in there. *He appears to not like killing people in the beginning, as he vomits after he kills his first victim in the Tutorial, however, he gets used to it later and wants to make sure that all mobsters die in the worst way as possible. *He often does not care about people, even for those who show respect for him. *He's probably not afraid to die, as he goes onto several extremely dangerous missions, or he simply wants to take down all the mobsters before he is killed. *He's not very experienced with firearms. *Jacket has blond hair, and his face can be briefly seen if he dies. *The varsity jacket he wears might imply he doesn't buy new clothes often or he misses his younger days. *He displays perfect signs of a psychopath, although he does show sympathy for the Hooker in Decadence, bringing her home, and even avenging her death. *He smokes, as he is shown puffing on a cigarette before the closing credits. * His exact age is unknown, altough it is noticeable he might be on his late 20s/early 30s. * On various artwork pieces his jacket is shown to be brown, however in-game it is yellow due to the off-color neon art style of the game. Trivia *It is possible that Jacket's real name is "Richard," since it is the first mask received in the game (mailed to him personally by 50 Blessings), and it grants no special abilities. All masks in the game are named after their original owners, if Richter's mask is any indication. * On the Dennaton Games website there is a picture of Jacket with the name "Fritz" embroidered onto his jacket. This could also be his real name, or possibly his last name if the above is true, or a nickname. It could just be the name on the jacket, as there is no indication at all that the jacket originally belonged to him. Fritz is also a nickname for Frederick or Friedrich in German. * Jacket is the one of the only known playable characters who doesn't get a single line of dialogue in the series, the other being Alex in Wrong Number's demo. Category:Character